The CPAC presidential poll

Stuff reports:

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul won the conference’s presidential preference straw poll, a symbolic victory that reflects his popularity among conservatives who typically hold outsized influence in the GOP’s presidential selection process.

Not really. Here’s a list of poll winners, and most of them never became the party nominee:

• Ronald Reagan (became nominee)
• Jack Kemp
• Phil Gramm
• Steve Forbes
• Gary Bauer
• George W Bush (became nominee)
• Rudy Giuliani
• George Allen
• Mitt Romney (lost nomination in 2008, won it in 2012)
• Ron Paul
• Rand Paul

Rand Paul is more politically acceptable than his father Ron Paul, and is a serious contender. But I wouldn’t call him the front runner.